At the signing of the agreement forthis smart energy project, Mayor Pedutoexplained, “Like our past city renaissances,Pittsburgh has benefited tremendouslyfrom strong public-private partnershipsthat can see past the red tape and politicsto develop transformative change. Pitts-burgh already has a head start with thecreation of the District Energy Initiative toaddress Pittsburgh’s challenge of creating21st-century energy systems. But now,by collaborating with Denmark, we cancombine their international success withour own domestic expertise and estab-lish more sustainable energy policies thathelp reduce our carbon footprint, and atthe same time, increase the affordabilityand accessibility of our energy supplieshere in Pittsburgh. Together we will showhow combining energy and environmen-tal planning can provide a win-win for theeconomy.”Other partners have also joinedforces with the city to further strengthenexecution of these ambitious goals. Theyinclude Allegheny County; the Sports andExhibition Authority; Carnegie MellonUniversity; local foundations; the GreenBuilding Alliance; and local energy com-panies Duquesne Light, Peoples Gas andClearway Energy, Inc.

In Pittsburgh, as in projects elsewhere, it is important to have key partnerships that can model the benefits of
district energy and the underlying technologies used. It is of equal or greater
importance to have the local architects,
engineers, developers, contractors and
building owners understand and embrace
the benefits of district energy. And probably one of the most important factors
in developing a new system and modernizing a legacy system is community
support. In fact, another term for district
energy is “community energy,” which may
be a more appropriate phrase since it
reflects how the sustainability, efficiency
and resiliency benefits are ultimately
derived: through the economies of scale
possible when multiple buildings are all
connected to a common thermal network,
creating a district energy system.

Table 1 summarizes the recent his-tory of key project milestones – each ofthem building blocks contributing to themodernization and development of a dis-Clearway Energy was moving ahead withthe development of a new district energysystem adjacent to PPG Paints Arena. InApril 2016, the company applied to theUrban Redevelopment Authority to pur-chase the land for its new Uptown plant.

That summer, Clearway also secured ananchor customer for the future system:the University of Pittsburgh Medical Cen-ter (UPMC) Mercy hospital. By the follow-ing spring, the company broke ground onthe Uptown plant, which began deliver-ing steam to the hospital in March 2018;chilled-water and emergency backup elec-tric power service followed in June.

That same year, the city formed yet
another key partnership when it joined
forces with the Danish Energy Agency
and the University of Pittsburgh Energy
Grid Research and Infrastructure Development (GRID) Institute to collaborate
on designing and demonstrating smart
energy systems in Pittsburgh. One of the
key strategies this project identified was
the assessment of district heating and
microgrid feasibility.

The Uptown district energy system began serving the UPMC Mercy hospital in 2018.
Courtesy Clear way Energy, Inc.